Kanhaiya Kumar is contesting on a CPI ticket from Bihar's Begusarai.
Highlights
- Kanhaiya Kumar declared Rs 8.5 lakh as his annual income for two years
- He said his income came mostly from the sale of his book "Bihar to Tihar"
- His total cash in hand, his poll affidavit said, was Rs 24,000
Kanhaiya Kumar, the country's most famous student leader who is taking on a minister of the richest party, has declared a humble figure of Rs 8.5 lakh as his income for two years. The affidavit he filed for his nomination from Bihar's Begusarai, also lists five cases, which made him famous almost overnight three years ago.
Then chief of the JNU students' Union, Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested along with fellow students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya in February 2016 on charges of sedition.
The case -- involving alleged raising of anti-national slogans at an event on Afzal Guru, the man hanged for the Parliament attack -- had made headlines.
This year, the 32-year-old became a Left candidate from his hometown, which is set for a three-cornered contest. The BJP has fielded Union Minister Giriraj Singh. Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal, for which Begusrai is a stronghold, is fielding Tanveer Haasan.
In his affidavit, the former student leader -- a sedition case against whom had triggered student protests across the country - describes himself as an unemployed man who does some freelance writing and appears as a guest lecturer in various universities for a living. His income, he said, comes mostly from the sale of his book "Bihar to Tihar".
His total cash in hand, the affidavit said, was Rs 24,000 and investments and savings in bank amounts to Rs 3,57,848.
His affidavit also mentions one immovable asset - his ancestral property, a house in Bihar's Begusarai which stands on 1.5 decimal land and is valued at Rs 2 lakh. He has no agricultural land. His father is a farmer and mother, an anganwadi worker.
Kanhaiya Kumar, though, is not the poorest candidate in this election.
Nalla Prem Kumar, who is contesting on JDU ticket from Telangana's Chevella Lok Sabha constituency, has declared asset of Rs 500.
Rajendra Kendruka contesting from Koraput Odisha has declared assets worth Rs. 565. Once a Maoist sympathiser, the 27-year-old joined mainstream and is contesting election on a CPI- ML ticket.